CD player NOT made in China under $1,000?

Zanth - I second that, but he might be prohibited from reveling it.

I don't think Trelja is making it a secret. He is a distributor for Consonance. I applaude his candor.

Newbee is correct. I am the distributor/importer (and in charge of repairs) for all Opera Audio and Consonance high-end audio components in the North American (USA and Canada).

As I have said, they are one of the largest and most respected Chinese manufacturers in the field. I don't want to single them out, as my opinion from "comparing notes" with other industry insiders is that my experience is not out of the ordinary. But, to put a positive spin on things that deserve it, the sonics of their CD players at their respective pricepoints are class leading, and their tube equipment is not only solidly built and reliable, but especially good sounding.

I've always found it interesting that a company like Matsushitas Industries that make the Panasonic and Technics lines never really got going on the hight end. Onkyo at one time tried to begin heading in that direction, and some of their late 70s components (integrated amps) were nicely built with wood sides, quality components, etc. Pioneer sort of became the leader in Japanese high end in the 70s and 80s and then with their Elite series. Sony of course has dabbled along theway, but for preamps and amps, it seems only Accuphase really hit the mark for the high end.

Please correct me if I am wrong about this.

But go into any high end store in Tokyo (I have many times) and you see brands unknown to US consumers of low power single-ended triode stuff for those small city living spaces; 1 watt goes a long way in Tokyo.

But man do they know how to make phone cartridges!

Trelja - Is the high failure rate in the field, or is it on products that are shipped to you? In other words, you get a CD player from the company, take it out of the box and run it for two days without incident. If it gets that far, is it likely to later fail in the field? Or are a majority of the units just DOA when they reach you?